2002
by solar-sun
Summary: Memories. She's lived without a few of them for many years and her current ones involve a green haired pirate and a seemingly endless quest for a rematch. What happens when a word breaks the wall of her blocked memories? One shot. Tashigi x Zoro


Here is my one shot I thought of while I was at work on friday! I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Don't own one piece. If I did it'd be shoujo so be thankful for that :P

**2002**  
>by: Solarsun aka Candy<p>

_Memories_, its not like I had all that many growing up and most of the current ones are of chasing the straw hat crew, mostly Zoro through the grand line.

So why is it recently bugging me? I've never had a problem with the fact that I couldn't remember most of my childhood. It didn't bother me. The kids of the small villiage I was found near asked me over and over again if it did and it honestly hadn't. I figured if I was meant to remember that time in my life then I would have remembered it and it wasn't that much time voided from my memories of my current life.

"Roronoa Zoro! Stop and dual me!" My voice called out to a very familiar back. I hadn't seen him in 2 years but I know it's him, even if he had gotten a little bigger and now wore a black coat. The green hair was always a dead giveaway.

_I've grown. I've also changed in those two years. I've gotten much stronger Zoro so why won't you still dual me?_

When those words passed my lips a sudden shiver went up the swordsmen as he turned his head slightly.

A new scar I see. But with his training I figured he'd be loaded with new ones.

"You!" The man who had been haunting my dreams as of late yelled and then tried taking off once again. Much like every other time we had met. Two years hadn't changed that about him.

"Stop!"

"Like hell I will!" Zoro yelled back turning and finding himself in a dead end alleyway. His sense of direction was always off. A grumble came from the man ahead of me as he stopped realizing I had pinned him there, drawing Shigure. "Now Dual me Roronoa Zoro!"

The man seemed hesitant as he turned around, pulling the Wado Ichimonji out and standing there with the blade down.

"I don't want to fight you," He muttered in all seriousness. "I've already beaten you."

"That was a few years ago, people do get stronger." I mutter back.

"They do but I still don't want to dual you."

This was pissing me off to all ends. One of the strongest swordsmen in the world won't even accept a challenge when demanded! And I knew it wasn't became of my gender. It was because I reminded him of someone. The look in his eyes at Loguetown during our verbal scuffle after the last dual was one of pain, of sorrow, of regret. A look that I knew well in my many years of being a Marine. It was the look of loss. Whom ever I reminded him of had died. Never figured I'd see that look from him but something was pushing him forward on this path that was blinding him to his better judgement.

I stood down, holding Shigure lower at my side watching the man in front of me. Both of us not moving an inch just watching the other for some movement or action.

"Kuina," I could barely hear under his breath as his lips moved.

_Kuina?_

Something about that word hurt my head. I shook my head bringing my other hand up.

_Why?_

Then suddenly flashes of scenes forced their way to the front. Of a dojo. Of many sleepless nights filled with pain.

_If only I wasn't born a woman._

Of a green haired little boy with a look of determination in his eyes as he challenged ME to another dual. The growth I had seen in him in our many many MANY duals and how proud that made me knowing that I was at least part of his drive which drove me.

Of one starry night when the familiar Wado Ichimonji was in my hands. Of the last dual I remember from the boy. Of the sorrow that ebbed in my heart as we vowed that one of us would be the strongest swordmen in the word and the realization that it wouldn't be me as we vowed.

_If only I wasn't born a woman._

The joy in also standing there with him knowing that I knew the soon to be strongest swordsmen in the world. The fact that I had a strong hand in it and the realization that there was other ways to become the strongest swordsmen besides JUST strength.

_But at least I was born._

Then I remember falling and the flashes get muddled till it reaches to a point where I remember waking up in the bed of an old kind man who had explained to me they found me wondering hopelessly outside of their little village. It looked as if I had been wondering for days and he wasn't sure if they could have saved me.

But there I was. Alive. The old man took me in and raised me till I was old enough to join the marines.

He had been a marine. He had also been a well known retired swordsmen who's sword had been Shigure. He had given me his sword on the day I shipped off after the years he spent training me when I seemed to have a natural skill or training in the art of blades.

Word came a few months later that he had passed in his sleep and that he had been hiding an illness from me the whole time. The letter from the small town doctor said that finding me that day gave him strength enough to live. It had been a miracle he had lived so long with his illness.

_I had also given him strength._

When the memories stopped pushing their way to the front I found myself still in the alleyway but this time hunched over. Roronoa Zoro, the now grown man I recognized as that little boy from my memories, was kneeling to my side. His hand on my back.

"Are you alright?" He asked a hint of emotion in his voice. He was worried about me. Of course he was worried about me. With all I knew now I understood the look in his eyes very well.

Standing up slowly I nodded and he took a step back.

"Now about that dual", I muttered.

"I told you I'm not going..." Zoro began.

This time though I slid my right foot back taking a very familiar stance that I hadn't used in years. A smile played on my lips as I looked up at Zoro. It was a stance I had been trained with in our training together. The look on his face went from annoyance to something unreadable.

"Care to continue with our 2002 dual then?"

o

So there it is. No I don't think Tashigi and Kuina are the same person in the story but Oda is good at making twists like that work. He said that their not related. That's all he's said about them two so either they are the same person or they are two different people. I figure we'll find out before the end of one piece. He has a storyline in mind for Tashigi/Zoro that explains it. Please review as you go and thanks for taking the time to read one of my stories!


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